A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 426: In troubled times, Yi Ning Island, poor father and son do not look at each other
Decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, and rubbing shoulders with each other, this was Jian Yong's first impression of the city of Chaoge.

As the foreign minister under Liu Bei, Jian Yong has traveled everywhere in the world, but this is indeed the first time for him to come to Bai Kingdom.

I have long heard people say that Chaoge City in the Bai Kingdom is the most prosperous and stable city in the world. There is no trace of war at all in it, as if the world is still at peace.

Since the chaos in the world, and the former prosperous capital Luoyang was burned by Dong Zhuo, Chaoge has become the largest and most prosperous city in the world.

In addition, due to the chaos in the world, many common people, wealthy businessmen, scholars, and scholars flocked to the Bai Kingdom to seek asylum in order to escape the war.

This further intensified the prosperity of Chaoge, turning Chaoge, which originally had only over 100,000 people, into a giant city with a population of more than 300,000.

In order to feed these more than 300,000 citizens, the Bai Kingdom had to maintain friendly relations with the princes of the world, so that the Bai Kingdom's businesses could circulate unimpeded throughout the world and purchase food and items in other areas to meet Chaoge's needs.

The princes in the world are also concerned about Bai's reputation and are willing to maintain friendship with Bai.

In addition, the princes could not only collect taxes from the Baiguo Commercial Bank, but also obtain goods from other places through the Baiguo Commercial Bank to relieve internal financial pressure.

If you want to reach a temporary truce with hostile forces, you will often invite a Baiguo to walk in the local Baiguo and act as a middleman to allow the two sides to reach a truce.

Coupled with the protection of the Baiguo Escort Bureau, the Baiguo Trading Company can pass through the official roads in the mountains and forests surrounded by bandits, as well as the rivers where water thieves are raging. This makes the Baiguo Trading Company the only one in the world that can travel unimpeded throughout the world during times of war. Merchant caravan.

The current White King Luo is named Bai Wangluo. The previous White King Bai Ke passed away five years ago, and the throne was inherited by his son Bai Luo.

Bai Wangluo is seventy-six years old, as old as ever. Compared with the harshness of the previous king Bai Ke, Bai Luo was elegant and friendly.

His father was good at calligraphy, his pen was sharp and sharp, and he had rules in what he wrote, which put a lot of pressure on the attendants and officials around him.

Bai Luo is good at painting, gentle and humble, and is the elder among the people. However, he also inherited some of his father's temperament. In order to ensure the integrity of government, he will show no mercy to corrupt officials, as long as he is allowed to discover and confirm them. , there is no way out of prison.

But in other respects, Bai Luo is still very easy to talk to.

"Under the command of General Zuo, Jian Yong and Bai Jin are engaged to pay homage to the king. May the king live forever!"

Under the leadership of Bai Lu, Jian Yong and Bai Jin met the legendary King Bai.

"Both of you, please get up. As the saying goes, those who come from afar are guests, so please take a seat." Under the guidance of Bai Luo's words, the two of them sat down at the guest seats.

For the first time, Jian Yong also put away his usual shameless attitude. When he came this time, not only his clothes and hair accessories were neatly packed, but his behavior did not look casual at all.

"I have already heard about the arrival of the two of you from Bai Lu. From an attitude point of view, I support General Liu in taking over Hebei.

But you also know that the Bai Kingdom has always maintained a neutral and unbiased attitude because it wants to protect the Bai Kingdom's trade routes and support the scholars and people who come to the Bai Kingdom to avoid disaster.

To be honest, since Dong Zhuo's rebellion, more than one million people have poured into the Bai Kingdom, and more than 100,000 scholars have arrived. The entire Chaoge Bai Kingdom is simply overcrowded.

You must know that before the chaos, the Bai Kingdom had a total population of only more than 300,000. The food accumulated was only enough for 400,000 people for a year. To support a million people in half a county, you can imagine the pressure. Know.

If we blindly favor General Liu, not only Cao Cao, but also Liu Zhang, Sun Quan, Liu Biao and others will definitely take action against our Baiguo trading group. When the trade routes are cut off and there is no support from grain and grass, the millions of people in the Baiguo will We will fall into famine, which is not what I, Bai, want to see.

But now Jizhou is caught in the private fight between Yuan Shang and Yuan Tan. Millions of people in Jizhou and hundreds of thousands of people in Youzhou hate the war between the two.

The Bai family has lived in Hebei for thousands of years and has always believed that the people are their own. Now that the people of Hebei are in dire straits, we cannot sit idly by and ignore them.

Therefore, I decided to openly support General Liu with a slight bias, and secretly contact some scholars in Hebei who have friendship with me, the Bai family, to help General Liu.

However, for the sake of the Bai Kingdom, General Liu cannot take the south of the Yellow River for a day, and the Bai Kingdom cannot openly support General Liu for a day. Although General Liu is also a clan member of the Han Dynasty, please ask Jian Cheng and Bai Cheng to inform General Liu of this.

There are really too many worries, otherwise I wouldn't have known that General Liu was the wise master of the world and supported him so cautiously. "

Jian Yong and Bai Jin looked at each other, and then said: "With Bai Guo's help and Bai Guo's prestige in Hebei, as long as the people of Hebei are not unwilling to accept the general's governance, our army will fall into a protracted war. We are very happy to fight fiercely."

Bai Luo smiled and nodded: "I have long heard that General Liu is devoted to the people and takes the affairs of the world as his own business. I am convinced that he will be the next master of the world. However, the decision is still undecided today. There are Cao Cao and Sun Quan in the south. , Liu Biao, Liu Zhang and others.

Bai's public support of General Liu may bring unnecessary trouble to General Liu, and may even cause General Liu to be attacked by them, just like Emperor Guangwu.

It took more than ten years just to obtain the land in Hebei and pacify Longxi and Shu. The world today has been in chaos for a long time. In another ten years or so, the alien race may be able to take advantage of it.

Therefore, I also asked General Liu to quickly pacify the world and restore the glory of the former Han Dynasty. "

Jian and Yong immediately stood up and saluted: "Please rest assured, Your Majesty, we will definitely pacify the world as soon as possible to restore the glory of the Han Dynasty." When Jian and Yong went out, Bai Luo looked at Bai Lu and said, "Lao Jiu, you are walking in the world. It’s been more than ten years, and I’m not young anymore. Now it’s time to get married. Do you have a sweetheart?”

Bai Lu blushed with embarrassment and said: "Master, Lu has been away from home and has not returned. He has been abroad all year round and has no one he loves."

"In that case, I will arrange your marriage. Before the death of the late king, I had been worried about the safety of you, the Bai family, and your marriage.

When you went out, each of you was a young man of the highest caliber. Now when you come back, you are all in your thirties, but you are still alone. You have dedicated so much to the Bai family. It is because the family does not care about you enough.

Since you don't have a sweetheart, I will find a good woman for you. Is that acceptable to you? If you have a sweetheart, just say it and I will personally marry you. "

Bai Lu immediately saluted and said, "Everything is decided by the head of the family."

Bai Luo immediately began to think carefully, and after a while, he thought of something:

"The Yuan clan of Bai County has a legitimate daughter, who is twenty-three years old. She is born in a generous manner, has the ability to run a household, is sensible, and does many good deeds. She has always been praised by the people in the county, but she has never found a man she likes, so she I have never been married. Can I find this wife for you?"

Bai Lu didn't care. Anyway, as long as his wife was not a shrew, ignorant of etiquette, or narrow-minded, it would be fine, because at this time, his mind was no longer on the matter of men and women.

"Lü'er is willing."

Bai Luo said with satisfaction: "Go, I know you want to return to Xuzhou as soon as possible, but you also need to get married first and leave an heir before you can go. You must know that you were the only one of the nine walking back then, and there were no heirs left. , this is disrespectful to the ancestors."

Bai Lu had no choice but to agree with a wry smile.

A few days later, since Bai Lu still needed to get married before returning to Xuzhou, Jian and Yong could only go first on their way home.

"Xianhe, my dear brother, I'm really sorry. The wedding is being held for me at home, so I'm afraid I can't go with you. Please also tell the general why I can't return, and tell the general that when my marriage is over, he will return to the general as soon as possible. Please rest assured, General."

Jian Yong said with a smile: "Don't worry, the general is such a petty person. He must have been very happy when he heard the news of your wedding, Brother Bai. Maybe the next time we meet, it will be in Hebei."

After bidding farewell to Bai Lu, the two returned along the same route with the envoy and items from Bai Guo in return, still under the banner of Bai Guo Trading Company.

July
Jian Yong and others returned to Xuzhou and informed Liu Bei of King Bai's words and concerns. Liu Bei understood this very well and was grateful for Bai's help.

At the same time, he began to mobilize troops and generals, preparing to send troops next year to capture Hebei in one fell swoop.

General Xiahou Yuan of Cao's army successfully defeated the Liangzhou rebels. Ma Chao, one of the leaders of the Liangzhou army, fled to Hanzhong and became a guest army of Zhang Lu, the prefect of Hanzhong. One of the leaders, Han Sui, was captured and sent to Xudu. One of the leaders, Song Jian, was conquered.

At the same time, the Qiang, Di and other tribes in Liangzhou were afraid of the power of Cao's army and surrendered to Xia Houyuan one after another. Cao Cao successfully occupied Liangzhou and obtained very high-quality cavalry, using which he formed his own elite guard army of five thousand tiger and leopard cavalry.

Not only that, Cao Cao also opened up the trade route to the Western Regions, which greatly improved Cao Cao's finances. Cao Cao, who originally needed to repair for a year, decided to send troops again next year.

The twelfth year of Jian'an

March
Cao Cao led 70,000 troops and 5,000 naval troops to invade Jingzhou southward, and invited Sun Quan to join the attack.

Liu Biao, who was already seriously ill, immediately appointed Nanyang Governor and Hengjiang General Gan Ning to lead an infantry of 40,000 to guard Jiangling, and appointed Navy Commander Cai Mao to lead a navy of 20,000 to patrol along the Yangtze River. In addition to supporting Jiangling, he also supported the garrison in Jiangxia. Liu Qijun.

Since last year, Liu Biao has been sick and bedridden due to the war, which directly triggered a fight between Liu Qi and Liu Cong. The eldest son Liu Qi was supposed to be his heir, but because Liu Qi's mother died young, the current mistress is Liu Cong's. Mother Mrs. Cai.

Moreover, Liu Qi had no external help, while Liu Cong had the help of his uncle Cai Mao and Mrs. Cai's nephew Zhang Yun.

Cai Mao controlled the strongest navy under Liu Biao's command, while Zhang Yun was Liu Biao's general officer and had a great say.

Fortunately, Gan Ning, who held heavy troops, was still there to restrain him, otherwise Liu Qi might have been killed long ago.

Despite this, Liu Qi was very frightened by the many dangers. Finally, on the advice of his retainers and counselors, he asked Liu Biao to replace Huang Zu, who died in the battle, as the governor of Jiangxia in order to feel at ease.

Now that Liu Biao was seriously ill, Liu Qi, who had always been kind and filial, went to Biao many times and wanted to return to Jiangling to visit him. However, Zhang Yun and others were afraid that the affection between father and son would lead to Liu Biao establishing Liu Qi as his heir, so they did not allow Liu Qi to return to Jiangling.

He also wrote a letter to reprimand: "My lord ordered you to guard Jiangxia, which is a very important task. Now that you have left all the soldiers in Jiangxia and come to Jiangling without permission, my lord will definitely be angry and scolded when he finds out. This move hurts family ties and will only end up hurting the family." His condition has worsened, which is really not the way to show filial piety."

Liu Qi had no choice but to stay in Jiangxia and not return home.

(End of this chapter)